As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
As processors, graphics cards, random access memory (RAM) and other components in information handling systems have increased in clock speed and power consumption, the amount of heat produced by such components as a side-effect of normal operation has also increased. Often, the temperatures of these components need to be kept within a reasonable range to prevent overheating, instability, malfunction and damage leading to a shortened component lifespan. Accordingly, air movers (e.g., cooling fans and blowers) have often been used in information handling systems to cool information handling systems and their components.
While it is often desirable to maintain a thermal control system such that all components of an information handling system each operate below a respective maximum temperature, such thermal control in existing systems may lead to large temperature swings of certain components. For example, when active, a component may have a high temperature but may be maintained under its respective maximum temperature by the thermal control system. When idle, the temperature of the component may drop to a much lower value, due to collateral cooling as the thermal control system maintains other components below their respective maximum temperatures.
Such thermal fluctuations may cause thermal stress in components. For example, such thermal fluctuations can lead to repeated thermal expansion and contraction of electrical connections associated with a component, such as solder joints between the component and a printed circuit board. Over time, such repeated expansion and contraction may lead to decreased reliability of such electrical connections.